Toggle type hold open hinge

ABSTRACT

A SPRING LOADED TOGGLE LINK IS PIVOTED AT ONE END TO ONE HINGE MEMBER AND COOPERATES INTERMEDIATE ITS ENDS WITH A SECOND TOGGLE LINK PIVOTED TO THE OTHER HINGE MEMBER TO SWING THE SECOND TOGGLE LINK FROM ONE EXTREME POSITION, IN WHICH THE DOOR IS HELD OPEN, TO THE OTHER EXTREME POSITION IN WHICH THE DOOR IS HELD CLOSED, THE SECOND TOGGLE LINK BEING DISPOSED IN A NEUTRAL POSITION IN A MID-OPEN POSITION OF THE DOOR IN WHICH THE SPRING EXERTS THE SAME RESISTANCE TO DOOR MOVEMENT IN EITHER DIRECTION. THE SECOND TOGGLE LINK IS THE EQUIVALENT OF A SEGMENTIAL GEAR, BEING PROVIDED WITH TWO SPACED NOTCHES, EQUALLY SPACED ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF A LONGITUDINAL CENTER LINE, AND THESE NOTCHES HAVING ROLLING MESHING ENGAGEMENT WITH TWO EQUALLY SPACED PINS PROVIDED ON THE FIRST TOGGLE LINK INTERMEDIATE THE ENDS THEREOF.

Sept. 20, 1971 J. H. MARCHIONE 3,605,174

TOGGLE TYPE HOLD OPEN HINGE Filed Aug. 12, 1969 INVENTOR JOSEPH H. MARCHIONE United States Patent 3,605,174 TOGGLE TYPE HOLD OPEN HINGE Joseph H. Marchione, Rockford, Ill., assignor to Atwood Vacuum Machine Company, Rockford, 1]]. Filed Aug. 12, 1969, Ser. No. 849,362 Int. Cl. E0541 11/10 US. Cl. 16145 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A spring loaded toggle link is pivoted at one end to one hinge member and cooperates intermediate its ends with a second toggle link pivoted to the other hinge member to swing the second toggle link from one extreme position, in which the door is held open, to the other extreme position in which the door is held closed, the second toggle link being disposed in a neutral position in a mid-open position of the door in which the spring exerts the same resistance to dor movement in either direction. The second toggle link is the equivalent of a segmental gear, being provided with two spaced notches, equally spaced on opposite sides of a longitudinal center line, and these notches halving rolling meshing engagement with two equally spaced pins provided on the first toggle link intermediate the ends thereof.

This invention relates to hingesfor the doors of automobiles and trucks and is more particularly concerned with a hinge having a unique combination of two toggle elements, one of which is a long link oscillatable relative to one of the two hinge members and spring loaded at its outer end, While the other of which is a short link in the form of a segmental gear oscillatable by a rolling gear connection with the other of the hinge members by virtue of notches provided therein spaced in opposite directions from a median center line for rolling meshing engagement with a pair of spaced pins provided on the long toggle link intermediate the ends thereof, whereby to hold the door open in a mid-open position and when fully opened, the spring means cooperating with the long toggle link being so arranged with respect to the short toggle link as to require spring restrained movement of the linkage over dead-center to move the door from any of its three positions, namely, closed, mid-open, and fully opened.

I am aware that various designs of hold-open means have been proposed but they have generally been too complicated and expensive in construction and impractical for various reasons. It is, therefore, the principal object of my invention to provide a two-position toggle type hold-open means of simpler and less expensive construction, designed to give satisfactory performance throughout the life of the car without ever requiring any attention.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a hinge embodying the improved hold-open means of my invention, showing the parts in what corresponds to the closed position of the door;

FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is another plan view showing the hinge mem- 3,605,174 Patented Sept. 20, 1971 bers in full lines in the fully opened position of the door and in dot-and-dash lines in the mid-open position.

The same reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts in the three views.

Referring to the drawing, wherein in FIG. 1 the body is indicated in dotted lines at B and the door at D, the hinge shown at 4 is of the butt type an comprises the generally L-shaped body half or member 5 and a door half or member 6, also generally L-shaped. The body hinge member 5 has a pair of knuckles 7 and 8 between which the knuckle 9 on the door half 6 is engaged for pivotal connection by means of a pintle 10 in the usual way. Knuckle 9 has a radial extension 11 serving as a stop arranged to engage the body hinge member 5 at 12 radially inwardly with respect to the knuckles 7 and 8 on the arm 13 of the L-shaped body member 5 to limit the door opening movement positively. The other arm 14 of the body member 5 is the attaching end portion and has screw holes 15 provided therein for mounting the hinge on the door pillar on the body. Screw holes 16 are provided in the other hinge member 6 for mounting the door D thereon.

The hold-open means of the present invention involves only three parts, all of which are relatively simple and economical to manufacture, namely, a coiled compression spring 17 and two toggle link elements 18 and 19, the latter being disposed in overlapping relationship to one another in planes, substantially parallel to the plane of relative movement of the hinge members 5 and 6. Toggle link 18 is long in relation to toggle link 19 and is pivotally connected at one end, as at 20, to a boss 21, provided on one end of the door hinge member 6, and has a lateral projection 22 on its other end engaged in one end of the coiled compression spring 17, the other end of which is anchored to the door hinge member 6 on a frusto-conical projection 23 provided on that member. Spring 17 is caged in preloaded condition between the projections 22 and 23 and, as will soon appear, serves to hold the door in the closed position illustrated in FIG. 1 and also in the open position shown in full lines in FIG. 3, and likewise in the intermediate midopen position, shown in dot-and-dash lines in FIG. 3. In the latter position, spring 17 holds the door in that position, resisting its movement in either direction with equal force. This is due to the fact that the shorter toggle link '19, which is pivoted to the arm 13 of the body hinge member 5, as at 24, functions like a segmental gear, meshing with gear teeth on the link 18, so as to oscillate from the one extreme position, as shown in FIG. 1, to the opposite extreme position, shown in FIG. 3, in a door opening movement, the position of link 19 intermediate these two extremes being shown in dot-and-dash lines in FIG. 3 for the mid-open position of the door. Thus, the two notches 25 and 26 provided in the widened outer end of link 19 in equally spaced relation on opposite sides of a longitudinal center line are spaced the same as pins 27 and 28 provided on the link 18 intermediate the ends thereof so as to provide the equivalent of a gearing connection between the two links. The pins 27 and 28 have reduced end portions 29 entered in registering holes provided therefor in link 18 and these end portions are upset, as indicated at 30 in FIG. 2 for rigid mounting of the pins on the link 18, the other end of each of these pins having an annular retaining fiange 31 provided thereon, leaving adequate clearance space between these flanges and the bottom of the link 18 in which the link 19 can operate in its oscillation relative to the link 18 while having rolling meshing engagement with the pins 27 and 28 in the door opening and closing movements.

In operation, it should be clear from a study of FIG. 1 that when the door D is closed, pin 28 is engaged in notch 26 and spring 17 acts in a direction tending to keep the door closed by virtue of the fact that the pin 28 is on the outer side of the dead-center line a-b drawn through the centers of the pintle and pivot 24. In opening the door D, hinge member 6 swings about the pintle 10 as a center in a counterclockwise direction, and pivot for toggle link 18 also moves in that direction on an arc with the pintle 10 as a center, causing link 18 to fulcrum with respect to the pin 28 under pressure of spring 17, thereby causing toggle link 19 to swing in a clockwise direction until the pin 27 engages in the notch 25. This position corresponds to the mid-open position of the door, as illustrated in dot-and-dash lines in FIG. 3. The door D under these conditions in balanced with the spring 17 offering the same amount of resistance to movement of the door in either direction from this mid-position, as can be easily understood by reference to the dead-center line c-d in FIG. 3, which extends through the centers of pintle 10* and pivot 24 mid-way between the notches 25 and 26, namely, on the center line of the toggle link 19. This mid-position is marked 34 intermediate position in FIG. 3. Now, assuming the door is swung further towards the fully open position shown in full lines in FIG. 3, link 19 swings further in a clockwise direction as the pin 28 leaves the notch 26 and pin 27 remains in notch 25, spring 17 serving in the fully opened position of the door to hold it in that position with a greater force than is exerted in holding the door closed, as should be evident from the wider spacing of pivot 27 from the dead-center line c-d passing through the centers of pintle 10 and pivot 24. Thus, it requires a heavier push on the door in the closing direction to start it in that direction than the pull on the door required in starting it from the closed position in an opening direction. When the door reaches the fully opened position, the stop projection 11 on the door hinge member 6 either strikes the stop 12 on the body hinge member 5, as seen in FIG. 3, or is close to doing so, positively to limit any further opening movement. The fully opened position is labeled 80 FULL CHECK in FIG. 3. When the door is in the mid-open position, labled 34 INTERMEDIATE POSITION in FIG. 3, it requires the same amount of force to move it either way as is obvious from a study of FIG. 3, because to start it in a closing direction requires movement of the pin 28 past the dead-center line cd, in one direction, and, on the other hand, to start the door in a wider opening direction requires the same amount of movement of the pin 27 past the dead-center line c-a in the other direction toward the position shown in full lines in FIG. 3. There is obviously considerable latitude either way from the dead-center position of line cd with respect to both pins 27 and 28, and spring 17 offers the same amount of resistance to door movement from the neutral position in either direction. This is highly desirable especially when the car is in a narrow parking space or in close quarters in a garage, because under those conditions a person getting in or out or putting articles in or taking them out of the car need not be concerned with hair trigger action of the door, as there is plenty of leeway in the doors movement before the spring 17 takes effect to swing the door open or closed.

It is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding of the objects and advantages of my invention. While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, this is only for the purpose 4 of illustration, and it is to be understood that various modifications in structure will occur to a person skilled in this art.

I claim:

1. In combination with a door hinge including a body hinge member and a door hinge member pivotally connected together, door hold-open means comprising an elongated first toggle link pivotally mounted at one end on one of said hinge members for swinging movement on a fixed radius and in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of relative movement of said hinge members, a second elongated but shorter toggle link pivotally mounted at one end on the other of said hinge members for swinging movement on a fixed radius and in a plane parallel to the first link, means providing intermeshing gear teeth on the outer end of said second link and on said first link, and spring means urging said first link toward said second link to maintain the gear teeth in meshing engagement, whereby in door opening and closing movement of said hinge members said links are moved to certain definite positions of angularity relative to one another for each position of angularity of one hinge member relative to the other, and, in an intermediate neutral position of said second link, the spring means is in dead-center relationship to said second link and available to first resist and then, after some movement of one hinge member relative to the other, assist either opening or closing movement of the door.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1 including a stop projection on one of said hinge members arranged to engage the other hinge member in the fully opened position of the door positively to limit door opening movement.

3. The combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein the hinge is of the butt-type and one of the hinge members has a knuckle pivoted between a pair of knuckles provided on the other hinge member, the knuckle on the first mentioned hinge member having a stop projection which in the fully opened position of the door engages the other hinge member whereby positively to limit further door opening movement.

4. The combination as set forth in claim 1 wherein the spring means is a compression spring caged in preloaded condition between the outer end of said first toggle link and the hinge member on which the same is pivoted.

5. In combination with a door hinge including a body hinge member and a door hinge member pivotally connected together, door hold-open means comprising an elongated first toggle link pivotally mounted at one end on one of said hinge members for swinging movement in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of relative movement of said hinge members, a second elongated but shorter toggle link pivotally mounted at one end on the other of said hinge members for swinging movement in a plane parallel to the first link, means providing intermeshing gear teeth on the outer end of said second link and intermediate the ends of said first link, and spring means urging said first link toward said second link to maintain the gear teeth in meshing engagement, whereby in door opening and closing movement of said hinge members the generally endwise movement of said first link transversely relative to the outer end of said second link causes the latter to be oscillated from one extreme position to another extreme position in both of which the spring means functions to hold the hinge members, in their extreme position, but, in an intermediate neutral position of said second link, the spring means is in dead-center relationship to said second link and available to assist either opening or closing movement of the door, the two toggle links being disposed in parallel overlapping relationship, the outer end of said second link having notches provided therein spaced on opposite sides of a longitudinal center line and arranged to have meshing engagement with correspondingly spaced pins mounted on the first link.

6. The combination as set forth in claim 5 wherein said pins have annular flanges provided on their outer ends spaced from the first link sufliciently to provide working clearance for the second link between said flanges and the first link.

7. The combination set forth in claim 5 wherein said notches are spaced evenly both ways from the longitudinal center line of said second link, whereby in the intermediate or mid-open position of the door the second link is in a neutral position the same force is required to overcome the spring action in closing or further opening the door.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,934,783 5/1960 Johnson 16146 2,990,569 7/1961 Pollak 16146 3,017,659 1/1962 Psik 16146 3,370,318 2/1968 Marchione 16-145 0 BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner D. F. MARQUETTE, Assistant Examiner 

